Punjab: Canal water supply to rise by 10K cusecs for paddy season

The Irrigation Department anticipates a significant increase in canal water supply for the ongoing paddy transplantation season, projecting a rise from an average daily flow of 26,000 cusecs to 36,000 cusecs this year. This enhanced supply aims at reducing reliance on groundwater and supporting agricultural sustainability.

According to a senior official from the Irrigation Department, the additional 10,000 cusecs of canal water is expected to save the groundwater extracted by around 1.25 lakh tubewells. Currently, about 31.38 lakh hectare out of the state’s 42 lakh hectare agricultural land is irrigated by canals. The department is also working on new canals and lift irrigation schemes to serve the remaining areas.

Farmers have noted a positive development, with water reaching the tail ends of canals, particularly in the Abohar and Fazilka regions, a long-standing issue for these areas.

However, Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), expressed skepticism regarding the department’s claims of a major relief. While acknowledging that water supply has reached villages at the tail ends, he asserted that “the project execution has been shoddy as work was incomplete at several places. So all canals are actually not flowing”.

Confirming the increased supply, Principal Secretary (Water Resources) Krishan Kumar attributed the transformation over the past two years to the restoration of around 17,000 canal water courses before the start of the paddy transplantation season. This included reviving water courses that had been abandoned for 30-40 years.

He detailed that the phased restoration of the traditional canal system involved identifying problem areas where water failed to reach fields, especially at the tail ends. Additionally, the present government has added 1,140 km new water courses, channels branching off from main canals.

The department also acknowledged the lack of an online system for real-time data on actual canal-irrigated areas, water consumption, and system efficiency. Efforts are underway to digitalise the “Chakbandi and Warabandi” system using GIS-based software. Furthermore, with existing gates and gearing systems on canals being over 100 years old, innovative custom designs have been adopted to motorise the gates that were manually operated earlier.